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 The demonstration, called Flood Wall Street, drew hundreds of
protesters, and came a day after a bigger action that brought
310,000 people to the streets of New York in what activists
described as the largest protest ever against climate change.
Sunday's turnout was about triple that of the previous biggest
demonstration on climate change, a Copenhagen demonstration five
years ago.
For several hours on Monday, protesters stopped traffic on Broadway
south of the New York Stock Exchange.
Shortly after the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange on
Monday, demonstrators tried to push back metal barricades that
police had used to keep them away, an effort that ended when police
turned pepper spray on the crowd.
Police later broke up the gathering, ordering remaining protesters
to disband. A core group of a few dozen activists staged a sit-in
steps away from Wall Street, and police officers handcuffed and
walked them away one-by-one.
In all, about 100 people were arrested on Monday, including three
protesters taken into custody earlier in the day, a police
representative said. Protest organizers gave the same estimate for
the number of arrests.
The protest group behind Monday's action has roots in the Occupy
Wall Street movement that started in a downtown Manhattan park in
2011 to protest against what it called unfair banking practices that
serve the wealthiest 1 percent, leaving behind 99 percent of
Americans.
Kai Sanburn, a 60-year-old nurse and mother of two from Los Angeles,
said she had traveled to New York for Sunday's march and wanted to
do more.
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"The action here against Wall Street is really expressive of the
feeling that corporations and capitalism no longer serve people,"
Sanburn said.
Flood Wall Street organizers said they hope Monday's action will
draw a link between economic policies and the environment, accusing
top financial institutions of "exploiting front-line communities,
workers and natural resources" for financial gain.
The event is part of Climate Week, which seeks to draw attention to
carbon emissions and their link to global warming, and it comes
ahead of a Tuesday U.N. Climate Summit.
(Writing by Victoria Cavaliere and Scott Malone; Editing by Alex
Dobuzinskis, Sandra Maler, Robert Birsel)
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